NORTH CANTON, OH - Michael H. Grossmann has tried just about every general
aviation business, from flight training to a full-service fixed base operation.
He's tried a few airports as well. Along the way, he came to realize that
his company was best at charter, particularly freight. Since moving to
the Akron-Canton Airport here, he has discovered an airport that's providing
reasons for a long-term commitment. Now, he's branching out with a passenger
business.

Grossmann, 49, started out as a firefighter, but followed an interest
in flying. An automobile accident in 1983 served as the personal catalyst
to take the plunge into his own business, as a broker under the Air Medical
Transport name.
"I was an EMT (emergency medical technician)
when I was with the fire department, so I became an air ambulance broker.
At the same time, I wound up with a pilot service and management deal
on a Navajo, which really got us developed," he recalls.
For two years, he continued firefighting
as well. In 1986, he formed Castle Aviation in pursuit of an FBO contract
at the New Castle, PA, airport. He kept the name but didn't get the contract.
"We went to a meeting and it was kind
of like, you're going to become the FBO tonight. And I went in there and
they just blindsided me and the other guy got it. I just walked away absolutely
stunned," he explains.
"It was the first railroad job I ever
got in my business career."
With the charter business continuing to
grow, Grossmann decided to abandon the rapidly changing air medical business.
In time, he also discovered that moving freight could be more reliable
and considerably easier than moving passengers.

He also got his full-service FBO. From 1989 until 1992, Castle Aviation
was based at the downtown Akron Fulton Airport, before being forced out
when the city decided it wanted the property for other use. With the country
in a recession, Castle Aviation downsized from 22 employees to three,
according to Grossmann. He would then redeploy the company at nearby Portage
County Airport.
"I reevaluated everything," he
says. "I looked at what was it that made the most money over the
years? It was charter, so I decided to get rid of everything else in 1992
and became a charter company."
In April of that year, he was awarded a
contract with The New York Times to run newspapers to Hamilton, Ontario,
a contract Castle Aviation still has.
"That was the beginning of our recovery.
That's when we got pretty hot and heavy moving freight. Kitty Hawk came
into existence and we started flying automotive freight daily for them.
Three-quarters of my business then was with Kitty Hawk."

Building up castle
By 2000, says Grossmann, Castle Aviation
had grown to have annual revenues of $3.3 million. By that time he had
added airline AOG service and moving airline parts and maintenance crews
had grown to account for some 40 percent of the business.
His airline business helped him stay
the course as other freight companies were
seeing business disappear beginning in 2000. Of course, after 9/11 the
airline business itself went away. However, his company's reliance on
the airlines qualified it for a disaster relief loan, which he says helped
him through the difficult times in late 2001.
Meanwhile, The New York Times and Purolator
USA came calling. Castle added an Akron to Louisville run and one between
Chicago and Kansas City for the Times, and a Cleveland to Hamilton run
for Purolator. "Our business this year has really turned around,"
says Grossmann, explaining that Castle just experienced its best first
quarter ever.
Revenues dropped in 2001 to $2.7 million,
but Grossmann expects to be back at the $3.3 million mark this year, with
strong growth ahead.
Critical to maintaining a viable business
during the tough year of 2001, says Grossmann, was keeping an eye on profitability.
"I refused during this entire slow
period following 9/11 to fly an airplane that doesn't make money. Competitiveness
has been tight; we certainly have not increased our prices to reflect
our increased costs, but I can tell you of Caravans out there that are
charging a dollar or less a mile and they're not making money.
"It's going to be interesting in the
freight industry when the business really starts picking up, which I would
anticipate in 2003. All of a sudden all of these people who have been
flying their airplanes for a buck a mile won't have the money to modernize
their airplanes, or to do the maintenance."

Northstar business aviation
Central to that growth, says Grossmann,
will be the company's push into passenger charter, which has begun operating
under the Castle umbrella but doing business as Northstar Business Aviation.
To be successful moving passengers, he says, you can't be seen as a freight
firm that also dabbles in people.
"People associate us as a freight
hauler," he explains. "I asked a CEO group; seven of eight people
said get a new name."
The company currently operates a fleet
of eight aircraft:
o 4 Caravans
o 2 Aerostars
o Cheyenne II
o Merlin 3
Three of the airplanes - an Aerostar, the
Cheyenne and Merlin - are dedicated passenger planes for Northstar Business
Aviation.
"We're not saying 'executive' because
when the public looks at charter, if they see executive they think high-ups,"
he says. "We are trying to educate people and let them know that
the chartered airplane is a viable tool for their company. It's business
aviation, not just for executives.
"Will it end up as two separate companies
with separate [FAA] certificates? I'm not sure yet."
Grossmann recognizes that the Northeast
Ohio market, with Cleve-land at its core, is a jet market and has entered
"alliances" with companies that will provide that service through
Northstar. In late June, the company was to host an open house that featured
a Citation 3, Lear 60, and Citation XL on the ramp.

Akron-canton airport
The right business environment on the airfield
is also impacting Castle Aviation's operation, says Grossmann. The Akron-Canton
Airport, located some 30 miles south of Cleveland Hopkins International,
has been aggressively gaining air service, started when Air Tran began
service to Atlanta in 1996.
Explains Grossmann, "Moving to the
Akron-Canton Airport was the second best business decision I ever made.
The best was buying a Caravan.
"I was used to fighting the little
airport authority in which everybody had their personal agendas. Here
the atmosphere is one of a common goal. the airport wants everybody to
prosper, everybody to grow. With the Northstar project their attitude
has been, 'What can we do to help?'"
In late 1999, Grossmann purchased the corporate
flight department facilities of BF Goodrich - complete with 30,000 square
feet of hangar and offices on two acres, and a 60,000-gallon fuel farm
[no retail sales]. The leasehold was renegotiated to a 40-year term, with
fees of 26 cents per square foot and a flowage fee of six cents [sliding
scale].
Akron-Canton Airport offers three ILS approaches
and an FAA-operated tower. "The life of the pilot when we came here
got so much easier," says Grossmann.
He adds that the perception of customers
has changed as well with the move to the new facilities. "When you
move to an airport of this size, people look at you differently,"
he explains. "Other businesses look at you differently, as a business
to be reckoned with."